If you don't like insects, reading this will be difficult. A new fossil shows that a millipede was the biggest bug that ever lived. It was the size of a car. It was 2.7 metres long and weighed over 50kg. The word "millipede" means "one thousand legs," but not many millipedes have 1,000 feet. Seeing it would have been scary.
The scientists found the fossil on a beach by chance. They said it was "an incredibly exciting find". The fossil is 326 million years old. That's 100 million years older than the dinosaurs. The scientists are not sure what the millipede ate. It probably ate nuts and seeds. It may have eaten frogs and lizards, but not humans.
Try the same news story at these levels:
Giant Millipedes - Level 1, Giant Millipedes - Level 2 or Giant Millipedes - Level 3
Sources- https://edition.cnn.com/2021/12/20/europe/giant-millipede-biggest-bug-uk-northumbria-scn/index.html
- https://phys.org/news/2021-12-millipedes-big-cars-roamed-northern.html
- https://news.sky.com/story/scientists-uncover-fossil-of-car-sized-giant-millipede-it-was-a-complete-fluke-of-a-discovery-12500721
Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice activities, drag and drop activities, sentence jumbles, which word activities, text reconstructions, spelling, gap fills and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)